


when i run low you fill me up

by gapyeartragedy



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Canon Compliant, Comfort, Cuddling, F/F, Fight me on it, Fluff, Kissing, alex is there for like two seconds, bc they were in love canonically, no hurt just comfort, no smut sorry bout it, spoiler: they do, two friends cuddling.... they might kiss..... they might...., with some tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 03:22:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30133251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gapyeartragedy/pseuds/gapyeartragedy
Summary: After Nora spends two days building the file to expose Richards, June helps her relaxor, Nora is strung out on redbull and needs a nap and June has a bed.
Relationships: June Claremont-Diaz/Nora Holleran
Comments: 11
Kudos: 30





	when i run low you fill me up

**Author's Note:**

> i simply could not finish reading red white and royal blue and not write a june x nora fic
> 
> title from june by briston maroney

Friends kiss their friends sometimes. It just happens. At least it was for the White House Trio...

Alex had his New Years kiss pact with Nora and they had shared a few paparazzied kisses in the past. June would sometimes get tipsy and so full of excitement after a night out with the group that her and Nora would end up kissing until they fell into a fit of laughter.

It’s just how it was and no one really questioned it.

Nora was a free spirit on the outside, always changing her look or pursuing some new unexpected hobby (last month it was handmade earrings) but on the inside, the people closest to her knew what she was like. Easily worked up, stressing herself out over numbers and timelines and coding. She took on things that no one ever asked her to - like the Richards file she had hurriedly ran to the President the same hour she finished it.

No one had heard from her in a concerningly long time and they had just realized why. Nora had shut her phone off and developed a caffeine dependency to get her through the past 48 hours while she built the file against Richards.

It was an adrenaline rush, seeing Ellen’s face as she realized what it all meant. Watching the siblings look on in confusion. All of the information just tumbled out of her mouth at a speed that she wasn’t even sure she was capable of before.

She watched on as Ellen and Alex kneeled at the coffee table in the middle of the Oval Office, sifting through the copies that Nora had brought with her.

June sat on the couch next to them, but she wasn’t paying the papers any attention. Nora caught her worried eyes for a moment before Ellen spoke up.

“Nora, is there anything you can do at all to trace the person who sent this to you?”

She tries to explain how she tried everything without any luck, placing her phone onto the table with the email open hoping that maybe one of them could make sense of it. While Alex tried to decipher the message on her phone, Nora nervously paced next to them, her thumb caught between her teeth.

And then he figured it out. “Rafael Luna sent this to you.”

It was a bit of a blur for Nora after that, but so were the past two days. Ellen was quickly getting up from her spot on the floor, Zahra already had her phone to her ear as she rushed down the hallway to get more help and Alex was right behind her.

Nora went to follow him but there was a hand on her arm, stopping her in her tracks before she could walk out.

“Nor’, relax,” June said, her brows knitted together. “They can handle it from here.”

“I want to be at the meetings,” she protested without moving from her spot.

“I know you do,” June said softly as her hand made its way to Nora’s where she was anxiously gripping her phone. “But you’ve given them everything you have already.” She eased the phone from Nora’s hand, slipping it into the back pocket of her own pants.

Letting out a tired sigh and casting one last longing look down the hallway, Nora gave in. She let June lead her out of the office, their hands linked together as they walked toward the East and West Bedrooms, a trek she knew very well.

“Please tell me you’ve at least eaten in the past day or so,” June said as she pushed open the door to her bedroom.

“I got burritos delivered at like 2am last night,” Nora shrugged.

June pulled Nora over to her bed, sitting her down at the edge. She placed both of their phones onto the bedside table, face down and out of Nora’s reach.

“You need a break. From your screens, from the news, all of it,” June declared as she stood in front of Nora, making the other girl huff.

“This is important, June. Probably the most important thing to happen to this campaign,” she began wildly rambling again, her hands becoming animated with her words. “We can nail that asshole down and get-”

June cut her off, her hands going to Nora’s face and halting her words at the gentle touch on her cheeks. “Nora, I _know_ ,” she laughed, her fingers tucking wild curls behind Nora’s ears. “But your sanity is also important.”

“Sane is not a word I would use to describe my natural state,” she said as she gently leaned into June’s soft, familiar hands.

“You know what I mean.”

Nora just looked up at the girl in front of her. Her neat clothes and hair were the complete opposite of her own worn sweatshirt and hair that hadn’t been brushed in days. Self care wasn’t really on the agenda when you were working on a case to take down a presidential candidate. But, with her face being held in June’s hands, she began to check in with herself and felt the way her back was aching from hunching over her laptop and how her eyes were burning a little from being open for so long.

Nora reached out, slipping her fingers into the belt loop of June’s pants and used them to pull her closer, bringing the other girl to stand between her parted legs as she slipped her arms around her waist and rested her head against June’s sweater-clad chest. June’s fingers instantly went to Nora’s hair, gently twisting her curls and making her tired eyes flutter closed at the soothing feeling.

There were a few things in Nora’s life that genuinely brought her comfort. A cheap bottle of red wine from her favorite grocery store. The smell of honeysuckle in the summer from when she was a kid. Old reruns of 90s sitcoms late at night. And the feeling of being close to June.

The last one was a little out of place and she knew that. But there was something relaxing about the familiarity of June, one of the two people who had been a constant in her life for the past few years. The smell of her perfume or just the sound of her voice, even if it came from another room, always put Nora at ease. June always brought her back down, made her feel securely planted to the ground even when the world felt like it was turning upside down. She wasn’t really sure how she did it.

“Alex is probably going to give a speech in a few hours,” June said softly, as to not disturb the quietness that had fallen around the pair. “So we have some time to ourselves until then.”

Nora nodded, looking up at her. “You can go be with them, y’know. I know he probably needs your help right now.”

June rolled her eyes. “Nice try, but I’m not leaving you alone until I’ve got you in bed.”

“Oh,” Nora cocked an eyebrow at her, her hands starting to run up June’s back beneath her sweater, making her shiver. “I mean, if that’s all it takes...”

“ _That_ ,” June halted her hands from going any further, laughing, “is not what I meant.”

“That’s not what you’ve said before.” Nora pulled her hands away, a dumb smirk on her face as she fixed June’s sweater for her and tried not to focus on the way she was blushing above her at the remark.

“Well, _before_ you hadn’t been awake for two days straight and surviving off of Red Bull and spite.” She kicked off her shoes, walking over to her dresser to find her favorite pair of sweatpants.

“That’s actually a lot more common for me than you’d think,” Nora said as she flopped back onto the bed that smelled lightly of detergent and June.

After changing into her sweats, June walked over to the bed and tried to pull the blanket out from beneath Nora, who barely helped, just rolling over onto her side with a groan. With a little more effort, she was able to pull the comforter over the both of them after she climbed into bed, letting Nora have her usual side.

“As much as I really do appreciate the subtle kidnapping, you didn’t have to do this,” Nora said as she laid next to her, her face half buried into June’s pillow.

“You’re telling me that you would’ve actually gone home and gotten some sleep if I simply asked you to?” June asked doubtfully.

“Definitely… Right after I went to those meetings.”

“Exactly,” June chuckled.

June studied Nora as they laid there facing each other, her hand involuntarily reaching out and pushing away some of the curls that had fallen into Nora’s face like they always did. She could tell that she was tired by the way her eyes fluttered at the touch and struggled to open back up.

“Do you think the file is going to help?” Nora muttered, her voice getting deeper as sleep started to creep in.

They both knew the answer to her question. But, June knew that right now all Nora wanted was some reassurance that her hard work would pay off. That the last two days could finally come to an end, in the comfort of June’s bed. That she could finally rest.

“Yes, of course,” June whispered, her hand moving to rest at the nape of Nora’s neck, her fingers buried in her curls and her thumb caressing that spot right behind her ear.

Beneath the blankets, Nora reached out and hooked her arm around June’s waist, pulling her close enough that their legs slipped between each others’ with familiar ease. Her head was swimming with exhaustion, the warmth of June’s body and the smell of her perfume that she wore every day making her relax even further into the soft mattress.

She didn’t stop herself when she reached for June’s face. Didn’t think twice when she leaned in, using the last of her energy to press her lips to the other woman’s. Nora let out a gentle sigh through her nose when she felt June kissing her back, June’s hand at the back of her head helping to hold her close so that she wouldn’t have to try too hard to hold her tired head up.

It was gentle and slow, not the messy, laughter-filled kisses they shared most often. Nora could count on one hand how many times that had kissed like this. Three, maybe four. But that was just her number obsessed brain trying to make sense of whatever this relationship was between them. If you kiss your friend like this while you’re laying in her bed with her fingers in your hair, is she really just a friend?

“I can feel you thinking,” June mumbled against her lips. “Stop it.”  
And with that, everything in Nora’s head sort of blurred, allowing her to just revel in the feeling on June’s fingertips caressing her skin and her lips forming perfectly against her own with each kiss.

As the minutes passed, they began to stretch longer and longer and Nora knew that sleep was finally encroaching. June could tell too, the feeling of Nora’s chest rising and falling at a slower rate and her kisses becoming softer.

June pressed soft kisses to the side of Nora’s mouth instead, to her cheek and temple too. She watched as the other woman relaxed into the same pillow that she slept on every night, knowing how comfortable she must feel and feeling grateful that she could offer that to her.

A soft hum came from Nora’s throat as June pressed one last lingering kiss to her forehead, her arm tightening around June’s waist as she finally let the world fade out. Sleep took over her and she was okay with that, knowing she had done everything she could for the people she cared the most about.

When Nora woke up, she could hear the thrumming of a heartbeat beneath her head. It wasn’t her own, instead it was June’s. At some point during her nap she had ended up with her head on June’s chest, her t-shirt leaving lines across her cheek.

When she opened her eyes, she was met with the bright glare of a phone screen, making her let out a groan which alerted June that she was awake.

“What are you doing?” Nora grumbled, shielding her eyes from the light with the blanket.

“Sorry,” June rushed, locking her phone so that the light wasn’t in her eyes anymore. “Alex was texting me for help with his speech.”

Then everything came flooding back to Nora. Richards. The file. Alex. The meetings and speeches...

“I should go,” Nora sat up, “Your brother needs you.”

“Hey,” June said, reaching out for her to stop her from moving any further. “It’s okay. The speech is finished, he’s probably already starting by now. There’s nothing else we can do but wait.”

Nora rubbed her face, letting out a tired sigh. She could still feel the ache in her body. A couple hours of sleep wasn’t going to magically erase the 48 hours she had been awake, although it did help a little.

She looked up at June. “Are you sure? You don’t want to go watch him?”

“No,” she said truthfully. “I know he can handle it on his own.”

Nora reluctantly nodded, laying back down and letting her head fall into June’s lap. She felt the other girl shift beneath her, sitting up and making herself as comfortable for Nora as she could. Her fingers found their way back into her curls.

“Thank you,” June said, making Nora turn onto her back to look up at her, her brows knitted together.

“For what?”

“Everything,” June laughed softly beneath her breath. “The file mostly. Alex needed that. We all did.”

“I know,” Nora nodded. “I would stay up for weeks if it meant helping you guys.”

“You know I wouldn’t let you do that.”

Nora nodded, knowing she was right. She reached for her hand that was busy with her curls, slipping her fingers between June’s and bringing their joined hand to her lips. She pressed faint kisses to each of June’s knuckles.

“You don’t have to take care of everyone all the time,” Nora said against her skin.

“I don’t-” June began to argue but Nora was quick to cut her off.

“You do.” She looked up at her, letting their hands rest on her chest. “You left everyone today just to make sure I slept. You always do things like that. You literally live here instead of on your own because you want to look after your brother.”

June was silent for a moment as she pondered Nora’s words.

“I do it because I care.”

“I just want to make sure you save some part of you for yourself and you don’t just give it all away.”

Nora watched as June’s skin got warmer at her words. “That might’ve been the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” June confessed.

Nora rolled her eyes playfully, pushing herself away from the other girl with a dramatic groan. “Oh my god, you’re such a sap.”

“No, come back! You’re ruining the moment,” June laughed, reaching for Nora and tugging on her sweatshirt.

“I wasn’t aware we were having a moment,” Nora teased, letting June pull her back in but this time she climbed onto her knees and sat herself on June’s lap, making the other girl swallow thickly and fight back a blush.

“Speaking of moments,” Nora starts, draping her arms over June’s shoulders and joining her hands behind her head, a bold confidence coming over her. “Are we going to talk about the kiss?”

“The kiss?” June says dumbly, a little too overwhelmed by the beautiful girl in her lap to think.

“Right before I went to sleep. You let me kiss you. And it was different. You only ever kiss me like that when you’re sad or really, really drunk.”

June shrugged, shyness taking over. Nora was right but June doesn’t think she has the words to explain it.

“I don’t know. It just kind of happened,” June said, her eyes downcast as her hands hesitated before settling on Nora’s hips. “It just felt right.”

“Do it again”

June looked up at Nora, her brows knitted together. “What?”

“Kiss me like that again, June.”

“I-,” June blinked, flustered. “Okay.”

June could feel Nora’s fingers slip into her hair at the back of her head, just as she had done to the other girl a few hours earlier. And then they were both leaning in and their mouths met each other, their lips instantly recognizing their place.

June was shier than before and Nora was bolder. But it only took a moment for them to level out, meeting somewhere in the middle at a place that was soft, but intentional.

It made so much sense to Nora, June’s mouth on hers. They fit together perfectly. There were drunken nights where their kisses would be playful and brief but that was because it was what they both needed and wanted in those moments. At parties where the music is too loud and you can’t concentrate on anything for long before someone else is tugging on your arm, wanting to dance or for you to meet someone. Both of their lives were so busy, the past few weeks being no exception. But finally, alone in June’s bedroom with the curtains closed and the rest of the world shut out, they could slow down.

June let her hands wander, finding warm skin beneath Nora’s sweatshirt, her fingers running along the notches of her spine. Nora kept their pace, slowing down some kisses and savoring the softness of June’s lips or deepening them, her tongue meeting June’s and eliciting soft sounds from the other girl’s throat.

They didn’t let themselves get carried away this time. That had only happened once before but only after a lot of drinks and because they weren’t the only one’s in the bed, a certain Brit accompanying the activities that were very foggy in all three of their minds.

They could’ve stayed there all night, and it wasn’t like either of them were keeping track of how much time had passed, but they were eventually interrupted when the sound of someone knocking filled the room.

“Juniper!”

“Come in!” Nora called out after pulling away from the kiss, both of their faces flushed and lips swollen, evidence of what they had been doing.

“No! Don’t-” June tried to protest, but the down swung open anyway, her brother coming in before freezing in his place once he noticed what he walked in on.

“Hey, how was the speech?” Nora asked nonchalantly, more to tease June than anything.

“Um,” Alex cleared his throat. “Good, it went well.”

“Sorry,” June apologized for the scene, pushing Nora off of her lap as the other girl laughed. No matter how much they kissed, Nora would never miss an opportunity to embarrass her.

“Somehow this is the least surprising thing to happen to me all day,” Alex said truthfully.

“What do you want, Alex?” June said with an embarrassed huff.

“To get really drunk and watch myself on the news for the next few hours.”

“I’m in,” Nora instantly said, climbing out of bed eagerly.

Alex looked to June, his brows raised in question as he waited to see June’s response.

“Fine,” she groaned, getting out of bed and joining them both at the door.

Alex slung his arms over both of their shoulders and began to make his way down the hall with them on either side of him.

“Now, you have to both promise not to get drunk and start making out with me in the same room later.”

“No promises,” Nora said, the sound of her laughter echoing down the hall as June rolled her eyes and tried to pretend that she was annoyed, even though she was the happiest she had been in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> hi hope u enjoyed. also i might get killed for writing this instead of updated my multichapter killing eve fic but oh well (im sorry kgkgjdkd)
> 
> n e ways, tell me ur thoughts or just scream with me in the comments about how in love they are in the book


End file.
